2016 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2016 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award established by the Planetary Science Institute have been selected.

The Pierazzo International Student Travel Award was established by PSI in memory of Senior Scientist Betty Pierazzo to support and encourage graduate students to build international collaborations and relationships in planetary science.

Sheridan Ackiss of Purdue University will receive the award for a U.S.-based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting outside the U.S. Her research title is "Mineralogical Evidence for Subglacial Volcanoes in the Sisyphi Montes Region of Mars" and she will be attending the 6th International Conference on Mars Polar Science and Exploration in Reykjavik, Iceland Sept. 5-9, 2016.

Christy Caudill of the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration at the University of Western Ontario will receive the award for a non-U.S. based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting in the U.S. Her research title is "Large Basin Impact Cratering Processes as Understood Through Martian and Terrestrial Impact Studies" and she will be attending the American Geophysical Union Fall 2016 Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., Dec. 12-16, 2016.

A PSI representative will present each awardee with a certificate and check for $2,000 at their respective conferences.

Visit http://www.psi.edu/news/2016PISTAphotos to view photos of the winners.

Betty Pierazzo was an expert in the area of impact modeling throughout the solar system, as well as an expert on the astrobiological and environmental effects of impacts on Earth and Mars. In addition to her research, she was passionate about education, teaching and public outreach, developing planetary-related classroom materials, professional development workshops for teachers, and teaching college-level classes herself. Betty believed in the strength of broad collaborations in all of her research and education activities. This award memorializes the scope of how she lived her life and the good she sought to bring to our profession and communities.